


The Opposite Of War

by Deshah



Series: My Characters In Hogwarts [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-12 01:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13536543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deshah/pseuds/Deshah
Summary: There is a world in which Kelly Mukhopadhyay’s mother took them home not to America but to England. A world in which her sister Karishma is strange, but just strange, and magic works quite differently. A world where twins Avi and Avantika Mukhopadhyay actually received magical training. A world in which Kelly knows she’s a witch, and doesn’t believe anyone when they say her sister is a squib. Or, I stick my characters into the Harry Potter universe, because I can.





	The Opposite Of War

**Author's Note:**

> the opposite of war isn't peace; it's creation! (La Vie Boheme, RENT)

Two important things happen when Kelly is eleven: her aunt Avantika is elected India’s Prime Minister for Magic, and she gets her Hogwarts letter. 

Kelly has mixed feelings about going to Hogwarts. On the one hand, she’s lived in England for six years, so surely she’d be more comfortable there. On the other, she misses India and if she went to school there she wouldn’t have to remember English, which she still sometimes has trouble with. On the other other hand, in India she would be the Prime Minister’s weird half-English niece, and would stand out in a way she wasn’t sure she wanted. But at Hogwarts she would be probably the only Indian (half, whatever) and a half-blood whose wizarding half isn’t even from an old family; supposedly that sort of thing had stopped mattering, but she’d interacted enough with purebloods to know that it still did. Either way she would be away from her father and sister and school friends, and would see her mother even less frequently. She can’t help but wish, a little, that she’d been born mostly-muggle like Karishma, and could keep going to muggle day-school with her. Hogwarts doesn’t have art classes or sisters who can see into other worlds. 

 

A great many changes had been pushed through after the end of the war. The new generation was angry and still charged up to fight, and they were willing to do a great many things to get their way. When the heros of the War Against Voldemort said “this is the way it has to be”, a lot of people sat up and listened. By the time the more conservative members of the population began rallying to fight back, Hermione Granger was working her way up to Minister for Magic, and Harry Potter was reforming the Auror department from the inside out. 

By the time Kelly boards the Hogwarts express, Auror Potter has become Mr. Potter, stay-at-home dad, and Minister Granger has been re-elected. 

 

Kelly has been sitting and sketching the platform for nearly twenty minutes when there’s a knock on her compartment door and a head full of bushy red hair pokes in.

“Hey!” The girl’s bright grin is infectious. “This is the first empty-ish compartment we’ve seen, mind if we join you?”

“Sure, I don’t-- we?”

“Sweet! And yeah,” she stepped the rest of the way in, towing behind her by the hand a shortish boy with messy black hair. His paleness was startling, even more so next to the girl, who was a shade or two browner than Kelly (It didn’t even occur to her to think the red hair was odd; Kelly and Karishma’s was auburn). “I’m Rose; this is Al. He’s my cousin. We’re first years. Are you a first year? You look like a first year. What house do you think you’ll be in? I--” Al elbowed Rose in the gut and, when she stopped to scowl at him, pulled her down onto the seats opposite Kelly. Here Rose seemed to realize that she had been babbling, and blushed.

Kelly wasn’t sure what her face was doing, but judging by the way Rose was sinking in on herself and Al was frowning at her, it was probably something judgemental. Oops. She quickly shook her head, trying to banish the expression. “I’m a first year, too. I’m Kelly. And-- Ravenclaw, probably.” They hadn’t given her their last names, so she wouldn’t either.

 

The sorting is… Not what she’d been expecting. Her father had been educated in Berhampore Academy of Magic, which didn’t have houses. Frankly Kelly thought that separating children into categories like that probably wasn’t healthy, but what did she know? In any case, she’d been expecting it to involve some sort of magical personality quiz, just… not one administered by a talking hat. Neither Rose nor Al had been called when “Mukhopadhyay, Kelly!” summoned her to the front of the hall.

_“Hmmm.”_ She jumped when its voice sounded inside her head. _“Quite the fearless one, aren’t you? You’re not nervous at all.”_

_Not fearless,_ she thought back at it. _Just philosophical. Nothing I can do will change the outcome, so there’s no point in being nervous._

_“That’s unusually mature for someone of your age -- and very passive. Perhaps Hufflepuff? You are unendingly loyal to your sister.”_

_And only her. I’m not about to give my loyalty to a whole house._

_“Fair enough. Hmm. Nice thirst for knowledge, but you don’t seek knowledge for its own sake; rather, you see it as a weapon to wield against you enemies and a tool to get what you want. Quite a bit of cunning, too, and ambition, oh yes… It seems like you’ll do best in_ SLYTHERIN!”

There was applause from the leftmost house and Rose and Al, still among the unsorted. Kelly walked briskly towards the emptier end, glancing down just in time to catch sight of her tie changing color and stopping dead halfway there, picking up the end of the tie to study it. 

“Hey!” 

Kelly glanced up at the whisper-shout and blinked at the girl leaning out from the Slytherin table towards her. She was older, maybe sixth, seventh year? And striking, mostly because her eyes were purple and her hair was green. Overzealous house pride, perhaps? 

The girl offered a smile. “You can ponder the mysteries of Hogwarts’ magic just as well sitting down, I promise.” Her voice was soft in deference to the sorting still going on behind them. 

Kelly scowled at her, but before she could snap back something along the lines of _don’t patronize me!,_ the girl was speaking again. “Not that I blame you. I did the same thing when I was sorted, trust me. Want to sit down?” Kelly slowly sank into the seat next to her.

“Why are you being so nice?”

“Someone has to be. It’s sure as hell not going to be the other houses.” She paused consideringly. “Well, they’re better now. You should’ve seen the way things were when I was a first year. Or maybe not. You always this blunt?”

Kelly glowered. “ _Yes._ Are _you?”_

This got a laugh, for some reason. “Only when I like you, kid.”

Kelly opened her mouth and-- “Potter, Albus!” --swiveled around in time with the rest of the students to stare at the small, clearly nervous boy hurrying towards the deputy headmaster. It was, not entirely to her surprise, Al from the train.


End file.
